Boston, here I come?

Good, quality run tonight, averaged a steady 7:10 mile over the route, and finished with a sub-7 minute mile.  Glad I went to 7, although this will be an easier week than last, it's always nice to tack on a couple extra miles.

Standard issue easy recovery run, held the pace to 7:58/mile.  The bigger news is that I went to the gym this morning..didn't do too much, but it was nice to lift some weights.  Gotta get in there 2-3 times/week from here on out.

Today's run was harder than expected - I planned on finishing the route in just under an hour, and succeeded, at 59:53.  But the effort output was more than I thought it would be..could be partially due to weather (74 degrees at the finish), or just a tough day.  I had to hustle at the end with a 6:59 final mile, to make sure I was under an hour, but the pace was mostly steady throughout the run.  Average bpm was 166, with a high of 179 towards the end of the run, about where I thought I'd be.  A few miles tomorrow will complete a solid step-back week.

Pico and back 

Oof, today didn't work out so well.  The plan was to do an easy 5 miles to cap off a solid step back week..then I ate a bunch of girl scout cookies last night.  The stomach didn't like that too much and I had to turn in and do a pretty uncomfortable last mile.  I'm glad I was smart enough to not push it and I really don't care about missing out on a single mile.  The week was good overall, and today even averaged a 7:35/mile pace, so it all worked out well enough.

Standard issue easy run, trying to take advantage of the morning sunshine this week and wake up nice and early.  Paced 7:25/mile, kept the heart rate nice and low, simple but important start to the week.

Great run this morning.  I had to get a decent amount of miles in since I took last night off to eat cookies.  It was only a few, but there was no way to run afterwards..as it turned out, cooking dinner would've prevented a run anyway so it was no real loss.  I clocked in at a steady 7:14/mile pace and felt very comfortable during the run. 

The marathon is 7 months away and I feel like I'm right where I should be.  I think I could do around 3:30 in a marathon today, although with very uneven splits (probably 1:35/1:55ish), just because I haven't gone over 13 miles in a while.  As my training and cross-training ramp up, that endurance will keep building..the goal is to break 3 hours so I've got my work cut out for me!

Good easy morning run, averaged 7:12/mile, which was faster than I felt or really tried/wanted to do.  These warm sunny mornings have been great, but will go away for a while after the clocks change this weekend.  I still felt strong after yesterday's effort, which shouldn't be surprising but is always nice..but there was no reason to push at all.  Ideally I'll do another short run tomorrow (3-5 miles) and have a big weekend (15-20 miles).

Another easy morning run in the sunshine, kept the heart rate nice and low and averaged a steady 7:15/mile.  I'm planning on something in the 20 mile range this weekend (5-7 tomorrow, 10-14 Sunday), looking forward to seeing how it goes..then it's back to evening running for a while until the mornings are bright and sunny again!

Today was a fun easy run - every mile was between 7:23 and 7:30, without trying to do anything but go steady.  Looks like it worked!  I'm planning on a nice long run tomorrow so I didn't want to overdo anything today..the beer and pizza last night played a role too, but to a much lesser degree.

5 mile loop 

Well that was a reality check.  I hadn't run this far since a 16 miler in late April while prepping for a half marathon, and of course I did the very hard golf course route.  I had to make a pit stop 5 miles in, which is never pleasant, but felt happier (and lighter) after that.  Sometimes in this case I would reset the watch and break up the day into two runs, but I wasn't stopped for long and definitely wasn't tired when I stopped.  Most of the run was surprisingly consistent, but all of the hills really took a toll at the end and I struggled with the last two miles (8:16 each).  Overall I averaged 7:37/mile, which is perfectly fine for this distance and the course..just felt like a disappointing finish.  I added some flat distance to the route, just for the sake of some extra mileage.

Today was my introduction to performance gel, which I ate (?) after about 8 mile..luckily my stomach behaved.  I don't know if it helped, maybe the end of the run would have been worse without it.  I was really worried that my stomach would reject it, especially with one pit stop already in the books so I'm encouraged with the result.  I know that I've got to re-fuel if I'm going to break 3 hours in the fall so I'm starting early to find something that works.

around golf course

Foot is still sore from Sunday's long run - it's weird, just a soreness on the outside of my right foot.  Nothing in the arch or heel, so I figure it'll go away in time.  It didn't bother me during today's run but again got worse throughout the day.

So I wound up taking a few days off..not really by design, but I'm glad I did.  I wanted to run both Thursday and Friday last week but my stomach had other ideas..then I was in Vegas over the weekend where running was the last thing on my mind.  The good thing about this was that my foot got a chance to heal up, and feels 100% now. 

I started off fast and got faster, every mile was 6:57 or faster, and my pace finished at 6:43/mile..they were in the 6:30 range in the second half of the run and I was feeling good.  Tired, but good.  This was a great run to shake off the cobwebs of the last few days.

I love these runs, they make me so proud - it was raining all afternoon in LA, so everybody else was inside while I went out for a run.  After yesterday's harder effort I wanted to take it easy, but wound up averaging 7:10/mile..I may enjoy running in the rain but the puddles made me want to get home and dry off.  Tomorrow is likely an off day, with some good miles coming in the following three days.

Had another "faster than planned" run today, in an effort to get home to go out to dinner.  Then going out didn't happen, but at least the run was fast!  Every mile was in the 6's, with a 6:50 average mile in the end.  I've got to take it slower this weekend, just to take it easier on my legs - but these consistent sub-7 miles are great mentally.

5 mile loop 

Now this was more like it - wanted to take my time and feel like the run was effortless, and that's exactly what happened.  Overall pace was 7:29/mile, with all miles between 7:24 and 7:40.  Tomorrow will be similar, I'm still trying to work on strength more than speed for the time being..got to go back to the gym next week for some hip exercises and get back on the ball for crunches!

Well this was interesting - I set out to do my normal 8 mile route, but as I went north I was running directly into rain.  It was dry at my house, but getting stronger with each step..so I turned west and decided to just make up a route, with some park loops and other neighborhood streets.  Wound up spending most of the time in the rain, which is fine...until 5.5 miles in when I went to turn onto a sidewalk and had my foot go completely out from under me.  Smashed my thigh against the curb on my way down, scraped up my hand and cut my shin.  A couple nearby runners made sure I was okay, which I realized I was after about a minute.  I decided to try to jog, and when it didn't hurt too bad I figured I'd keep going.  I was going slower (wound up with a 7:44/mile pace, I was taking it easy anyway), which was fine, and almost gave up at the 7 mile mark..but decided to tough it out to complete the 30 mile week.  I made it, and I'm happy I did..nothing got twisted or sprained, just a big bruise and a couple of scratches, I compare it to getting hit by a fastball.  Tomorrow was going to be an off day anyway, so hopefully it doesn't hurt too bad in the morning.

Well, the leg has hurt since Sunday, but it's just a bruise - nothing that is going to get more hurt by running.  Had a good run today, covering the 7 miles at a 7:15/mile pace, without straining or pushing hard.  Ordinarily I probably would've done only 5 today but this distance put me over 100 for the month.  The opposite side of my quad flared up a few different times, but I'm guessing it was just upset for having to pick up the bruised area's slack.

Now THAT was a workout!  I strapped on the weight vest (7.5 lbs) and did some hill repeats...brutal.  It's a half mile to get to the hill, then 1/3 mile up and 1/3 mile down..did four repeats on the hill and turned in.  The overall pace wound up at 8:08/mile, but I'm really only noting that to see how much I can improve over the next few months.  Importantly, the fourth repeat was slightly faster than the first, I'm very happy about that.  I've got to do some more of these in the coming weeks to keep building strength, and then do some hardcore speedwork.

This was a tougher "easy" run, being the morning after the hill repeats.  Good opportunity to do a nice easy pace and not exert myself.  Mission accomplished there, kept the heart rate low and averaged 7:29/mile.  My legs are feeling it now though, if I run tomorrow it'll be in the evening..my instinct is to take the day off but I've got a 5K on Saturday that I'm running with a friend in.  It'll be a slower (8 min/mile?) pace so that will be an easy run, seems like I should get a few miles in tomorrow and really make this a strong week.